I was a bit slow on this one, but any perceived difficulty was down to cleverness of clueing and some non-obvious definitions rather than outright obscurity.
Hope you enjoyed it.
(In the clues, definitions are underlined and anagram indicators are in bold italics. In the explanations (ABC)* indicates an anagram of abc. Deletions and other devices are indicated accordingly, I hope).
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Worker on vegetables? Could be (7) |
| PEASANT – ANT (worker) on PEAS (vegetables)
Sort of an all-in-one self-referential semi-cryptic to kick us off. |
|
| 5 | Closed one large book (4) |
| TOME – TO (closed) + ME (one)
I only know TO = closed from crosswords. A fairly dated (or perhaps regional?) usage I think, but others here have commented previously that they use the expression. |
|
| 7 | Like a bloom locust oddly destroyed (3) |
| OUT – Even letters only (oddly destroyed) of lOcUsT | |
| 8 | Indoor footwear beginning to yield as it is on ice (8) |
| SLIPPERY – SLIPPER (indoor footwear) + Y (beginning to Yield) | |
| 10 | Share the view a deadly sin has no end (5) |
| AGREE – A + GREE |
|
| 11 | Reason for doing something on energy is sensitive (7) |
| EMOTIVE – MOTIVE (reason for doing something) on E (energy) | |
| 13 | Strange rant about the French horn (6) |
| ANTLER – (RANT)* “about” LE (“the” in French) | |
| 15 | Make changes to retain viewer’s backing? (6) |
| RETINA – (RETAIN)*
Viewer in this case meaning eye. |
|
| 17 | Incline vocally to give approval to painting on two panels (7) |
| DIPTYCH – DIP (incline) + TYCH [homophone (vocally) of TICK (to give approval to)
Possibly an obscure term? Or perhaps not, given the erudition of our little community here. I just inferred it from the more familiar (to me) triptych. |
|
| 18 | Go quickly small bird (5) |
| SCOOT – S (small) + COOT (bird) | |
| 20 | Underclothes hang around airer regularly (8) |
| LINGERIE – LINGER (hang around) + alternate letters (regularly) of aIrEr | |
| 22 | Front to shoe, ultimately (3) |
| TOE – &lit. Last letters (ultimately) of fronT tO shoE
On edit: I originally had this parsed as TO + E, with front as the definition. Cedric’s comment prompted a re-think and I’m more comfortable with this parsing. Nice clue actually. On further edit, I really like this clue. It has ultimately = “finally” for the wordplay, and ultimately = “at the most basic level” for the sake of the definition. (At the most basic level, the toe is the front to a shoe). Very elegant piece of clueing. |
|
| 23 | Concerning morning paper (4) |
| REAM – RE (concerning) + AM (morning) | |
| 24 | Retreat’s ghastly, not the last time (7) |
| HIDEOUT – [HIDEOU |
|
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Info that’s spread on behalf of heathen father (10) |
| PROPAGANDA – PRO (on behalf of) + PAGAN (heathen) + DA (father)
We don’t hear “Da” much down here, but it always reminds me of Christy Brown as portrayed in My Left Foot. “Respect for Da” is the line he utters before instigating a pub brawl from his wheelchair. Great stuff. |
|
| 2 | Rubbish about rising thespian (5) |
| ACTOR – [ROT (rubbish) + CA (about)] all reversed (rising)
For the newcomers, CA (or C) for circa, meaning “about” gets a guernsey in every second crossword, so it’s worth being aware of. |
|
| 3 | Rule as yet misguidedly in a severe manner (9) |
| AUSTERELY – (RULE AS YET)* | |
| 4 | Kept an eye on temperature — felt unwell (6) |
| TAILED – T (temperature) + AILED (felt unwell) | |
| 5 | Money for waiting at table? Mine’s raised (3) |
| TIP – PIT (mine) reversed (raised) | |
| 6 | Damage can with one cocktail (7) |
| MARTINI – MAR (damage) + TIN (can) + I (one) | |
| 9 | Term pedant confused in specialised area (10) |
| DEPARTMENT – (TERM PEDANT)* | |
| 12 | Buy too much — lots of deliveries await settlement (9) |
| OVERSPEND – OVERS (lots of deliveries) + PEND (await settlement)
An over in cricket is a set (or a “lot”) of six legitimate deliveries. |
|
| 14 | Kills fish on ship’s upper deck (7) |
| TOPSIDE – TOPS (kills) + IDE (fish) | |
| 16 | Wartime PM’s not bad for organised religion (6) |
| CHURCH – CHURCH |
|
| 19 | Top garden party? (5) |
| OUTDO – OUT DO (“outside” or garden party)
Not sure you’d ever talk about hosting an “out do” but this is Crosswordland after all. |
|
| 21 | Stick up easy target (3) |
| GUM – MUG (easy target) reversed (up)
For anyone but Yoda, the clue taken on its own leads more to MUG than to GUM. Thankfully we have the checkers to put paid to any doubts. |
|
6:13
Straightforward, no problems. Joker has made a number of clues more QC-like, including phrases he might well have omitted in a 15×15: large (5ac), indoor (8ac), at table (5d), wartime (16d).
Well, it was hard for me. I did fairly well for a while, but just couldn’t get started in the SE – hideout, scoot, department, outdo. Those took longer than the rest of the puzzle.
Time: 9:58
12 minutes. My only query was TOPSIDE which I was unaware can be a nautical term – though not particularly surprised. I knew it only as a cut of beef. SCOOT was my LOI.
A better week of QCs for me with 2 solved within 10 minutes and the other 4 within 15 minutes.
SCC Dipstick!
TAJAG
I found this quite chewy, taking 14:17, but always enjoyable. I did not parse TOME in flight – the answer was clear from the checkers but neither closed = to nor one = me registered. And da for father was new to me even if very guessable. As for TOE, I misparsed it completely, taking it to be the last letters of fronT tO shoE – which left me wondering how the definition was part of the wordplay.
LOI was OUTDO, for which I needed all 3 checkers (for a 5 letter word!); not a phrase I would ever think of for a garden party.
Many thanks Galspray for the blog and a good weekend to all.
I’d say the question mark on “garden party?” is critical here – it’s a just a cryptic hint. Agree that no-one would ever use it in real life
Thanks Cedric. That’s had me looking at TOE again, and I now think it’s an &lit. Tbh I wasn’t very happy with front as a definition anyway. I’ll update the blog accordingly.
A couple of tricky bits but all fairly clued.
I tried very hard to make the unknown (or forgotten) DIPTYCH start with ‘bi’ and it wasn’t until I finally unravelled the excellent PROPAGANDA that I saw the light. PEASANT also took time to solve as did the parsing of TOME.
Started with OUT and finished with EMOTIVE in 8.23.
Thanks to Galspray and Joker
Made heavy weather of some of this. DNF the easy TAILED, whereas I solved DIPTYCH. Sigh.
Struggled with TOPSIDE, OVERSPEND and HIDEOUT. Admired various inc LINGERIE, PROPAGANDA, and PEASANT.
Blog vital, so thanks Galspray.
Found this quite hard going and had to be very careful on the parsing e.g. emotion/emotive and slippers/slippery. I also worked Diptych back from the tri- version having coming across them wandering around Venice. 13 minutes.
I spent many hours wandering around Venice but never passed any of them doing the same – oh!
Initially had STEAL (Steal away) instead of SCOOT but saw the error of my ways as checkers arrived. No problem with Diptych (Warhol and before) although had to double check where the ‘y’ went, biffed TOME unparsed, COD PROPAGANDA.
Corrective spelling insists on ‘Unpasteurised’ for ‘unparsed’. Was tempted to leave it as that.
Thanks Galspray and Joker. 22 mins.
8.08 WOE
Trickiesh but fair. My downfall was inevitable and deserved, not bothering to read more than the first two words of 8ac and bunging in SLIPPERS.
Thanks Joker and Galspray.
I did the same with SLIPPERS.
This was a tough but enjoyable crossword that I did manage to finish albeit with a lot of help. One typo and one incorrect answer give me two pink squares. I was also disappointed that I didn’t get 14d sooner as it’s a word I heard almost every day in my 24 years in the RN. 😳
I have never heard of Diptych (even though I managed to answer it correctly due to checkers), so I’m going to comfort myself by pretending it’s a made up word.
First Lap:10
Answered (no help): 16, including 2x incorrect
Answered with help: 10
DNF: Nil
Time: 46:27
Dnf…
Made a mess of this with 3 errors – firstly putting 8ac “Slippers” and then banging in “Swift” for 18ac which meant I didn’t have a chance with 19dn “Outdo”. I knew something was wrong with that SE corner but just couldn’t see it.
FOI – 5dn “Tip”
LOI – 19dn “Intro” (incorrect)
COD – 1ac “Peasant”
Thanks as usual!
A tale of two ones … 1d PROPAGANDA FOI, 1a PEASANT LOI. I hate it when 1a is the LOI! Both excellent clues, in fact PEASANT gets COD from me.
Elsewhere struggled on how to spell DIPTYCH, how RETINA worked (another really good clue), whether it was scoot or shoot and how on earth to parse TOME (I never did and am grateful for the blog … was miles away from either half).
All in all some stiff tests and I was surprised to stop the clock at 08:01, it felt longer.
Many thanks Joker and gallers.
From PEASANT to DEPARTMENT in 8:57. I had MUG at 21d until REAM came along. Thanks Joker and Galspray.
6:12 but…
…SHOOT rather than SCOOT. Oh well.
Thanks G and J
11.26 for us – absolutely one of our better times, would have been under 10 had SCOOT not held us up.
That said, quite a number were at least partially biffed, parsed later – and in some cases (e.g. TOME) needed the blog to help us out.
Another enjoyable day : )
Thanks to all.
This took me rather a long time but I solved it correctly, eventually. Lots to like along the way including PEASANT, RETINA and DIPTYCH. Spent far too long on SCOOT, AUSTERELY and LOI GUM (oh, that sort of stick). COD LINGERIE. Many thanks both.
I found this a little tricky and DNF. Thanks setter and blogger.
To meaning close is often used by my family but only within the expression “push the door to” (or pull). I don’t recall hearing it used with windows or cupboards but perhaps others have?
13:14 with lots of things needing some mental digging, but unlike yesterday no big hold-ups. Why PEASANT eluded me until the end I can’t say, but of course I was confused by PROPAGANDA, with “pa” but not “da” for father in my dialect. I thought RETINA was clever and enjoyed the little “pop” of solving pleasure it gave me. I resisted OUTDO until I had no other choice, which delayed SCOOT. Did not understand OUT or TOME. Thank goodness DIPTYCH was an immediate biff because I’m sure it would have taken me a long time to get to “tick”.
Thanks Joker and galspray. Good blogging, much needed today. The TOE analysis was really good.
My thanks to Joker and galspray.
Oh dear, very delayed. 5a had to be Tome but I was foxed, thanks for the parsing galspray. Then the Coot didn’t come to me for 18a Scoot. Then I misread 21d and had MUG not Gum, and I only just missed the SCC at 15 and a bit. Oh well, it was fun.
We had swift (which never quite worked) until we couldn’t solve OUTDO (intro didn’t work at all). Our LOI TAILED took longer than it should have done – seeing ‘ailed’ was the problem – but we were all through in an about bang on average 12:48. Good puzzle. Thanks to Joker and galspray.
I am left with the consolation of a trip out with the SCC among the rolling Cheshire hills (😉) after quite a struggle with Joker’s little teaser. The fact that I have a seat at all is down to the remarkable foresight of Hieronymus Bosch (d1516) in painting some very interesting triptychs, otherwise diptych would have been quite a struggle.
CoD to 12d, Overspend, for the smile, a nose ahead of the impressive Propaganda. Invariant
30 mins. Took me ages and a resort to “what can go after s” before the penny dropped on scoot. Had to hope that topside was a deck as nho that. Didn’t parse tome either, despite having heard “pull that door to!” shouted at me many times as a careless child unconcerned with heating bills
FOI Slippery
LOI Tailed
COD Scoot
thanks Joker and G
Some very tough clues. 40 minutes for me, which is my threshold for saying this definitely wasn’t a QC.
Several clues went in either completely or partially unparsed (e.g. TOME, the NHO DIPTYCH, TOE, PROPAGANDA and TOPSIDE) and I lacked some GK (e.g. the fish, the ship’s upper deck, the two panelled painting, DA for father).
Overall, long periods spent staring at the grid and too many uncertainties, so not a very satisfying solve.
Many thanks to Galspray and Joker.
15.46 My first DNF this year with SLIPPERS. I was slow throughout and a biff of OVERORDER didn’t help in the SE. Thanks galspray and Joker.